Julie Favre

Julie Velten Favre (November 15, 1833 – ), sometimes called Madame Jules Favre, was a French philosopher and educator. She is known for her work educating young women and for advancing a moral philosophy that advocated living a virtuous life, rather than one based on rules and punishment.

Life Favre was born Caroline Julie Émilie Velten in Wissembourg in the north-eastern part of France to Michel Velten and Caroline Louise Weber. Her father was a Lutheran minister. As a child she disagreed with the imposition of religious practices and was greatly affected by the French Revolution of 1848, when she was fourteen years old. Velten grew to believe strongly in freedom and self-determination.

Professional life Not long after completing her teaching degree in Wissembourg, Velten became head assistant of a boarding school in Paris. Run by a Mme. Frèrejean, this Protestant school emphasized the personal will and good mental habits over strict punishment or rigid oversight. Velten was highly influenced by this educational approach.

In 1870, the Franco-Prussian War broke out and northeastern France was occupied by German forces. Velten stayed at the school with students who were unable to leave.

In 1881, Jules Ferry, the French Minister of National Education, named Velten Favre director of the Ècole Normale Supérieure de Sèvres. Ferry was a champion of secular public education, and Velten Favre was well suited to lead the movement for French women to receive secondary education, despite a skeptical public. Velten Favre continued to teach at the school until she died in 1896.

Philosophy As an educator, Velten Favre frequently pulled excerpts from classical and modern philosophers such as Aristotle, the Stoics, Plato, Socrates, Molière and Ralph Waldo Emerson for her students to read and discuss. Her own works grew from this educational background and were mainly written in the 1880s. She believed in universal morality, encouraging her students to live educated, moral lives. Personally she considered moral law to have foundations in the Christian perspective, but she also wrote that moral truth could be found outside of Christianity.

In particular, Velten Favre wrote that one is first a moral citizen, and only secondarily is a member of a country or family. This places men and women as equals. Velten Favre believed that women had a particular vocation to teach morality, which necessitates that women receive a broad and complete education.

Works

Philosophical works 1887 - Montaigne moraliste et pédagogue 1888 - La Morale des Stoïciens 1888 - La Morale de Socrate 1889 - La Morale d'Aristote 1891 - La Morale de Cicéron 1909 - La Morale de Plutarque

Compilation works and defenses of Jules Favre 1881 - Editor, Discours parlementaires (by Jules Favre) 1882 - Editor, Plaidoyers politiques et judiciaires (by Jules Favre) 1883 - La Vérité sur les désastres de l'armée de l'Est et sur le désarmement de la garde nationale, telle qu'elle ressort des dépêches officielles échangées entre le gouvernement de Bordeaux et les chefs de l'armée, et des dépositions des principaux témoins devant la commission d'enquête parlementaire 1893 - Editor, Plaidoyers et discours du bâtonnat (by Jules Favre)